


(it was love at first fight)

by inyourblackheart



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Derek "Nursey" Nurse is Unchill, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Getting Together, M/M, Mutual Pining, William "Dex" Poindexter is Stupid(ly in love), this is meant to be wholesome with a dash of angst take that as you will
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-19 04:49:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,114
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22005451
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/inyourblackheart/pseuds/inyourblackheart
Summary: Dex is in the midst of tying his shoelaces when the silence breaks.“It’s Chow, isn’t it?”“Huh?” he looks up from his shoes to where Lena sat on the other side of the booth.
Relationships: Derek "Nursey" Nurse/William "Dex" Poindexter
Comments: 20
Kudos: 283





	(it was love at first fight)

Dex is in the midst of tying his shoelaces when the silence breaks.

“It’s Chow, isn’t it?”

“Huh?” he looks up from his shoes to where Lena sat on the other side of the booth.

They’re at Nursey’s favorite restaurant, owned by this Salvadorian family that Nurse seemed to be familiar with, probably from coming down here so often. Dex had no clue how he found this diner, in Samwell of all places, and he would ask if it weren’t so easy to just chuck it up to Nurse’s impenetrable hipster taste. Despite all of Nursey’s raving about this venue, he was starting to see what Derek liked about this place — it had just the right amount of tables for people going solo or big groups, a reasonably priced menu (convenient enough for Dex’s wallet) and a nice atmosphere to boot. 

Dex was nearly always wary about Nurse’s taste, this was the guy who thought shit like cashew milk, black bean brownies, and Flume was good — he could admit oat milk wasn’t as bad as he thought it’d be, but _still_. This is the same guy he had seen drop pita bread on their unswept bedroom floor, only to pick it up and pop it right into his mouth without a second though, so he reserved the right to be suspicious. 

Since Nurse’s one and only sibling, Lena, had alerted him they were coming down to Samwell for the weekend, Nursey had decided to pull out all the stops. He made a list of his favorite things in town and was dedicated to hitting each and every point this weekend, which meant: sipping coffee at Annie’s, buying everything on his to-read list in his favorite indie bookstore (to put on his shelf and read after several weeks of Dex berating him about it), getting rowdy in escape rooms, going for an evening walk around campus (while Chowder talks his ear off about whatever comes to mind) and talking shit over pink lemonade and pupusas. After settling on the list, he was practically on his knees begginh Chowder and Dex to tag along. 

“It’s just not as fun when you aren't in a group,” Nursey whined, to which Chowder agreed within seconds and Dex grudgingly agreeing to several hours later. If anyone asked, Dex would maintain he agreed after enduring mountains of texts and rants to tag along, and wanted to avoid another snap spam from Nursey, the self-titled king of Snapchat, but only when Chowder wasn’t around to differ. (“What do you mean ‘Who said I was coming’? Dex, I literally saw you add it in your calendar once Nurse said we should come?”)

“The boy,” Lena answers, as if that clarifies anything.

“I… am not following.”

“He’s purposely been vague about it, but I know it’s someone close to him. And he’s been avoiding all my questions about him, so all I know are little things - like sonnets about his laugh, or incoherent rants about his eyes - y'know. Just small things."

"Small things," Dex mumbles, his mind trying to process the information at hand.

"Yeah, he's always going on about him. Like, for years. It's cute, but also so fucking annoying. I've been meaning to come visit and figure it out for myself. I fucked up my ankle skating a couple weeks ago —”

Dex would never get over that Derek’s sibling was a fucking model slash somewhat Instagram famous skateboarder. It honestly was surprising that both Nurses weren’t modeling — they both had the same bright green eyes, curls galore (though, Nurse’s were much more controlled and tighter than Lena’s would ever be) and charming air about them.

“ — so I figured it was prime snooping time. Booked the ticket and… God, it's pretty obvious."

"Obvious?"

Lena looks at him as if he's obtuse. He might as well be since he's been best friends for nearly three years with this guy and not once picked up that Derek had a crush. A huge crush. One that he hadn't even revealed to Lena.

It shouldn't surprise him; Nurse is always crushing on people. It's his whole romantic thing ("I can't help that my venus is in pisces, Dex!" Nurse would always say, whatever that meant), mixed in with his gift for seeing the good in everyone. Dex couldn't hate him for that, especially for the latter. There was no way they'd have made it all the way to their senior year if Derek hadn't seen the good in him. It had definitely been hard, but they got there. Nurse judged quickly, he learned, and so did he. But unlike him, he was just as quick to change his mind, so long as he was presented with new information. As soon as Dex made the effort to apologize to Nurse about the roommate thing, as well as work against letting his irritability and anger get the best of him, things between them got slowly, but surely better.

And despite his annoyance at his monthly lovesick ravings, Dex didn't really hate him for that either, no matfer how many times he chirped Nurse for it. He would never admit it out loud, but it was kind of endearing. It was nice knowing that there were people in the world who saw the good in others and weren't afraid to make that known to others. Dex would say it inspired him, if he wasnt the dork that he was. He could only manage so much small talk with cute guys before the red of his cheeks set fire to anything beyond that.

Will could still remember when Nursey had first complimented him — when he’d told him he appreciated the way they looked out for each other, on the ice and off, despite having a rocky relationship at first. It was true, and mainly a growing up being the older brother thing, but he cared a lot about those around him, about his friends, his family and the team — who felt like a happy middle of the two — despite being incapable to show that with words. He hated Nursey at first, but he never wanted to outright hurt him. He just did because he didn’t know how else to communicate with someone so unlike himself.

"Will. Come _on_. You're telling me you haven't noticed how Nursey is literally beaming tonight?"

"I just assumed it was because of you."

"Me? Hell no. I've never seen him so nervous yet so happy since he moved out to Samwell. All night, he hasn't been able to keep himself from bouncing off the walls - and he keeps on nervously looking at Chris."

Dex lets the information wash over him. Derek having a crush is one thing, one he's prepared and used to, but a serious one?

Something in his stomach clenches. Must be the tamales. Man, he is going to _kill_ Nursey for insisting they ate theirs drenched in hot sauce.

But before Dex could manage a coherent reply, Chowder and Derek finally came back from the washroom.

“God, took you long enough,” Dex says, as they take their respective seats at their booth.

Nursey rolls his eyes a little, looking at Chowder, but not without letting a smile slip.

Lena gives Dex a side eye, one that Dex is not ashamed to say he ignores, because he is not here to support their wild ass theories about his best friend and roommate’s supposed years-long crush.

“Anyways, when is the bill coming?” he asks.

“It’s not,” Nursey says, as Dex notices him pocketing his wallet.

“Nurse, you promised you wouldn’t pay for us again.”

“I don’t remember saying shit about—”

“You _said_ you’d let me pay for my shit, remember—”

“I _said_ , I’d let you pay for your own meals when _we_ go out,” Nursey says, “But as you can see there are more than the two of us here. And besides, I can’t let this one” — he points at Lena — “pay for shit, or they’ll call the moms and you wouldn’t want my moms to be involved now, would you, Poindexter?”

Derek knows he wouldn’t. He loves the Nurses, he really does, but, God, they don’t know when to end a fucking call. The invention of Whatsapp is both a blessing and a curse to the Pointdexter-Nurse room.

Dex rolls his eyes.

“You are unbearable.”

Derek only grins.

“A fucking menace,” he adds.

Lena wraps their arm around Derek’s. “Where to now, oh brother of mine?”

“God, I forgot you were a theatre kid.”

“Shut up.”

“I love your family, Nurse,” Chowder says, to which they all laugh at.

They decide to walk over to an ice cream shop before heading home, C insisted and he knows that Dex and Nursey are incapable of saying no to him.

But as they take the longer route, as per Derek's instructions — “It’s a _scenic_ route, Poindickster” — Dex can’t help his thoughts from going back over his conversation with Lena. He hates to admit it, he really does, but this whole thing — Derek having a crush on Chowder thing — was bothering him. 

Chowder was a fucking catch, anyone who paid attention would know — _especially_ after having to deal with several students asking Dex if C was single after things ended with Farmer — and so was Derek, obviously. They had insane chemistry, had clicked as friends quicker than Dex had ever known was possible (before witnessing Holster and Ransom, of course), and it wouldn’t feel like that much of a leap for Nurse to have a crush on him. 

The sun has set uncomfortably early in Samwell, to Will’s liking, because it’s 6 PM and it’s fall, as Chowder, Lena, and Nursey chatted freely. He heard them discuss some musical about… baking? Will won’t pretend to get it, he never has and never will. And besides, all he can think about is the weird tightness between his shoulders, the way his food hasn’t been able to settle down since leaving the restaurant, the way time seems to have both slowed down and speeded up. And the only way he can categorize this feeling is some weird offshoot off of sadness. Will can’t exactly place his finger on what it is, it’s an offshoot off sadness, not depressed, something familiar to him but altogether different. 

He’s still trying to figure it out when Nurse yells at him to pick up the pace, as they near the entrance to the ice cream shop.

Chow is practically bubbling over with enthusiasm, going over each and every flavor available here — “A favorite? But they’re all so good!” — with Lena, when Dex decides it’s as good as any time to bring it up. What better way to shake this off than to address it?

He pokes Derek’s elbow.

“Hey.”

Nurse raises an eyebrow, but takes the hint and stays back.

Dex tries to play it cool — he’ll just ask. Maybe if he’s upfront and nonchalant about it then he can shelve the weird feeling he’s feeling and call it a day.

“While you were busy going behind our backs to pay —”

“Get over it, Dex.”  
  


“— Lena was telling me about a wonderful theory they have about you.”

“Always a fucking theory,” Derek says, after letting out an exhausted groan. “God, I’ve _told_ them to quit psychoanalyzing me. You’d think they’d get tired of that shit because of mom but I guess fucking not.”

Dex doesn’t even want to imagine how being brought up by a therapist affects your psyche. He may not have the best family, but at least they have the decency to not nose around his personal life or analyze the shit he says and does. And thank fucking God for that.

“What is this one about?”

“They were ranting about your supposed crush.”

Nursey freezes, but Dex decides to go on with it. He refuses to let things get awkward between the two of them. And if he wants help with Chowder, then — cool. He’d deal, even if that meant shit would be awkward for a while.

“I mean, I get you not wanting to talk to me about it, but it’s okay if—”

“William.”

Dex shuts the fuck up. He can't remember the last time Nurse had referred to him by his name.

Neither does Dex. Well, out loud, at least. He’d only noticed himself calling Derek Derek a few weeks ago, maybe longer, but hadn’t bothered to kill that habit. Besides, it was a nice name. It fit him.

“Not now,” Nursey says, and calmly walks over to the counter, leaving Dex by the door.

Which is — _weird_ , to say the least. He hadn’t expected Nurse to be grateful that Dex had inadvertently learned about his crush on Chowder, but he hadn’t expected this reaction either? It was so… cold. And Nursey was not cold. He was the complete opposite, in fact. He was the warmest people he’d ever met, right next to Chowder. 

Derek reminded him of toffee. Sweet and savory. He was warm and stuck to Dex in a way he hadn’t expected, like how his gram’s homemade taffy stuck to the roof of his mouth. It was one of his favorite sweets growing up, and one of the few he had yet to get sick of. 

But from that point on, after choosing to end the night with a cone of soft served sea salt caramel ice cream, after Lena packed up their bags to head back to New York (or “the city”, as the Nurses insist, to Dex’s annoyance), after settling into bed that night, after today turned into tomorrow and the day after the next until two weeks had passed, Dex and Nursey’s already fragile relationship was at a scary standstill. Derek’s been nothing if not a well-mannered diplomate at best, and a face of someone he once knew on a missing person poster at worst. He wished he could go back to when they didn’t get along, when Derek would at the very least acknowledge him with more than a low chuckle or plain smile. But he doesn’t even know how they got here, how that conversation had landed them into this point. If he were Eleanor Shellstrop, this would be the perfect time to say “this is the bad place”, but he couldn't even make that joke because the person who had introduced him to the show was not fucking talking to him.

On Day 16 of this nightmare, Chowder finally gave up.

“What’s going on with you and Nurse?”

“What?” He’s terrible at lying, but he desperately wants to avoid having this conversation. Explaining this situation could possibly mean telling Chowder about Nursey’s maybe crush on him and he wasn’t as big as an asshole as Derek clearly thought he was to let him know that.

“You two have been super weird these past few days. And Nursey keeps ‘accidentally’ sleeping in my room.” So that’s where he’s been disappearing at night.

Dex doesn’t say anything, just keeps staring dumbly at his laptop’s lock screen.

Chowder sighs. “Fine. I’ll stay out of it. But you two better get it together. Jack and Bitty are concerned too.”

“Jack and Bitty?” Dex repeats.

“I call them weekly to give a check-up on things here. Have I never told you about that?”

“I feel like I’d remember you literally calling our parents on us for not getting along.”

“Hey, don’t talk about our dads like that,” Chowder jokes, “Besides, they’ve helped a lot with… other things.”

He assumes other things involves his break-up. It happened the second week of school, as a surprise to all but Chowder, really. He explained how they had been growing apart last summer, and things had really taken a toll once Farmer had accepted an internship overseas assisting a bunch of environmental engineers for her last semester at Samwell. Chowder was proud of her — God, they all were, how many times could you say you moved to fucking Copenhagan to do what you loved? — and as much as they had wanted to do long distance, it had been hard as hell when they were states apart. He was proud Chowder could keep the same relentlessly positive energy, which was great when Whiskey, the current SMH captain (Dex still couldn’t wrap his head around that — a fucking tadpole!), was super fucking honest and almost boringly so, but all that energy could be diffused by an enthusiastic “Let’s go” from Chris.

“You can always tell us frogs about other things, you know that right, C? Of course, that’s if you want, but I just wanted you to know.”

Chowder smiles. “Of course, Dex.”

He slips an arm around Will and squeezes his side. 

“I’d say this was a great talk but a certain _someone_ isn’t doing that right now.”

“Sorry.”

“Hey, you don’t need to apologize to me. Just… fix this. Whatever it is. I know you can. I promise not to butt in, but _please_ just talk to each other, I can’t stand Nursey’s sleep talking.”

Dex laughs, but doesn’t dare to say that that is but one of Derek’s traits he finds weirdly comforting. He doesn’t say a lot these days anyways.

With all that time spent not talking, it’s made him think and miss Nursey more than he thought he would. He misses his stupid laugh when Dex would make a joke, misses him blasting Outkast or Tame Impala songs while doing homework just to annoy the shit out of him, misses him making space on Dex’s miniscule bed to binge watch The Good Place and stupid Joseph Gordon-Levitt films together. (They had started - after Nursey had convinced Dex to watch [Shadowboxer](https://twitter.com/BriMalandro/status/1024718537133371392) when he was stressing over school - to create an unofficial rankings of his movies.)

And the weird sadness refused to go away. And after dwelling on it for a while, it seemed almost embarrassingly clear that this sadness was longing wrapped up in jealousy he’d spent so long denying. Longing like super fucking romantic and totally not platonic, longing that aches for his hand to hold as much as it aches for his lips on his, longing that sighs each time he catches his green eyes in sunlight or in the dark of their shared room, longing that worked alongisde jealousy when he realized his crush wasn’t reciprocated. 

Dex knew he was gay, had known for a long time by now, and this development was just the cherry on top. Falling for your best friend was the type of cliche Dex hated and now he literally was one.

After shooing Chowder out of the kitchen and pulling a Bitty and taking his emotions out into baking batches on batches of cooke dough — Dex sends his ex-captain a few snaps of his work before getting back to the dough. He’s packaged one of three batches into the freezer, and waiting on the second rounds of the two other batches of cookies — one is softbatch white chocolate and candy corn, the other is peanut butter and dark chocolate — while washing the dishes when he hears the door open, then steps going up the stairs.

He knows it’s Derek, by the evasion of the kitchen, as well as the sock-covered steps shuffling quickly as the stairs creak underneath him. Derek obsessively wears socks — even to bed, which disgusts the hell out of Chowder and Will.

Once he’s done with everything, hiding some away in the secret cabinet hiding spots, he sets up two plates of cookies of different assortment, and leaves a note that everyone is allowed to enjoy (“two (2) cookies and only fucking two (2)”). 

He climbs up the stairs and to their room, fingers crossed that Nursey hasn’t yet escaped to Chowder’s room, happy to find him at their desk, a stack of papers on his desk, probably left over from the recent TA job he’s taken up.

“Hey,” Derek says, without looking up from the paper, as he scribbles over a paper in red ink. _Ouch_.

“Hey.”

Dex slipped the plate of cookies on his desk. 

“Who are those for?” Nursey asks, eyeing the plate.

“Don’t be an idiot, I know you love those blasphemous corn syrup triangle pieces of shit, despite them tasting like sugary shit.”

Nursey doesn’t take his eyes off the cookies. “You baked these… for me?”

“I mean,” Dex shrugs, “I made some for the rest of the team. But yeah, also for you.”

Nursey is about to put his Airpods in when Dex just goes for it.

“Are we gonna talk about it?”

“About what?” Nursey asks, failing to feign any sort of innocence, especially with half a cookie in his mouth hardly muffling his voice.

“Don’t play stupid, Nurse, we can’t just avoid this.”

Nurse finally turns his chair around to face him, as Dex leans uncomfortably on their bed’s ladder.

He’d sit, but he doesn’t trust himself to not tap his foot erratically which annoys the shit out of Nurse and he’s kind of sick of pissing his roommate and best friend off at this point, if he’s being honest. The only way to avoid the tapping is for him to stay upright, which works for him because if this conversation blows up in his face, then he’d be the first out the door. He wouldn’t force Nurse out of their room, not this time.

“Can’t we?” Nurse asks, with a gesture so obnoxiously Nursey he’d laugh if this conversation wasn’t meant to be serious.

Will snorts, incredulously. “I can’t believe you’re asking me to.” 

Derek’s somewhat calm demeanor cracks. “Why can’t you just drop it?”

Dex almost feels like their having different conversations without really having the conversations, and he knows that he shouldn’t be getting angry, that he should be laying it out as honest and calm as he can, but he’s stupid and tired and so fucking gone for this boy that it's ridiculous.

“God, Nursey, you’ve only been ignoring me for weeks on end so I can’t just—”

“I haven’t been ignoring you—”

“You haven’t said _shit_ to me since Lena left. I don’t count this hyper-polite bullshit persona you pull when we’re with the team or with Chowder.”

“Okay, _fine_. I get it. The moment I say anything that doesn’t initiate a fight, then I’m being fake, right?”

“You are so fucking infurating!” Dex yells, as he cards his fingers through his hair. He paces a bit before turning back to Nursey. “I’m not—I just—why can’t you be yourself around me anymore? Why are you holding yourself back?”

“That’s not fair, Dex, and you know that.”

“Why the fuck not?” he demands, “I’ve given you your space, but I’m sick. The things you’re doing... the way you act… Shit, it affects me too, Derek! I can try to fake it, pretend like this shit doesn’t hurt but I feel it, fuck, I feel so much. _Too_ much.”

“And what about me? What about what _I_ feel?” Nursey demands, standing up sharply from his chair. Dex can’t bare to look at him, just keeps pacing the room.

“That’s the fucking thing, Derek! _I don’t know_. I don’t have a fucking clue what you’re feeling! I don’t even fucking understanding why you’re being so distant to me any fucking ways! It’s like, I don’t know what I’ve done — you’ve just decided for me what’s done is done, and shut me out.”

“Shut you out—?” Derek pulls back, as if he’s been slapped. “You know what? _Fuck_ you, Poindexter. Fuck you, because you know _exactly_ what you did.” 

“God, I don’t have a fucking clue what’s going on anymore,” Dex mutters, before finally sitting down on his bed. His leg starts to shake and he can’t bother to care anymore.

“Why can’t you just let this go, Dex?” Derek asks, in a voice so small, Will only recognizes is his because he’s staring at him, looking at the way his lips pull back after talking, trying his best not to let them quiver.

“I just… I can’t, Nurse. I just can’t.”

“Why can’t you?” he repeats.

“Because I’m in love with you!” And — wait, no. He didn’t mean to say that. Except he did. Except when he looks at Derek’s confused expression, Will knows it’s true. He’s fucking in love with Derek Malik Nurse. And he’s fucked it all up.

Before Nursey can retaliate, Dex is rushing out of the room and out of the Haus. It’s colder than he’d expected it to be, and he doesn’t have a coat, but it’s fine. He’ll just stay here and boil with anger and sadness and guilt until night rolls in, until everyone’s asleep and he can creep back into his, most likely, empty room and sob quietly into his pillow. It’s fine.

He’s out there on the porch for at least half an hour when he hears the front door open.

“I don’t want to talk, Chow—” he starts, when a jacket — his winter jacket — lands on his face.

“Let’s take a walk,” Derek says simply. He waits until Dex has his coat zipped up, and then leads the way.

Derek doesn’t waste a second, the moment Will zips his coat he's pace quickens as he makes his way towards the river. He casts a few glances behind him, but only for a few seconds, so Dex can’t even gage the expression on his face. They go down towards the Commons, then swerve left upon the Pond until Nursey finally settles on a bench nearby. He waits for Will to sit down before speaking.

“So.”

Dex remains quiet, as he keeps a polite distance from Derek. His hands are freezing but he can’t be bothered to deal with that with the way his heart is beating out of his chest.

“What did Lena say exactly?”

Dex doesn’t know where Derek is going with this conversation but goes with it. He’s followed him all the way here so he might as well.

“They said you had a huge fucking crush. The type you’re always ranting to me and C about, except this time you weren’t, you only shared shit with Lena. And even then, you only gave them random details. They said something about you… you wrote poems?”

He looks at Derek for clarification. 

He shrugs, his face is unreadable. “Something like that.”

“I was kind of in disbelief about it then I thought about it a little after. Like, it made sense you crushing on Chowder. I mean… he’s a lucky guy but—”

“Wait, what?”

“What what?”

“Chowder?” Derek asks, raising an eyebrow.

“Lena said—”

“Fuck Lena.”

“You—? What—?” 

“Okay. Wait, sorry, I’m moving too fast. We can get to that later,” Derek says, “I interrupted you. Something about a ‘but’?” 

Dex is fucking lost. C++ has nothing on Samwell English major, Derek fucking Malik Nurse.

“You said ‘Chowder is a lucky guy, _but_ ’,” Nursey seems to be waiting for a specific response, the one he nearly vomited out earlier in their room. 

“ _But_ ,” Dex repeats, “I’m—I am… I… Well… _you know_.”

He blushes furiously, and tries, he really does — but the words won’t come out. The last time was a fluke, he was saying shit before he had even had the time to process it. And even if he felt it, feels it, repeating it — especially when he doesn’t know what Nurse wants out of all of this — is scary as shit.

“I know,” Derek smiles. “You love me.”

“I’m—I… I mean, I know I said that I’m—but I—”

“It’s okay,” he says, setting his hand on Dex’s freezing ones, “Because I love you too.”

“You’re—” Will’s heart stutters to a stop. Relief has never felt so good. “You—?”

And that’s it. The look. That stupid look on Derek’s face, the one he always does when he’s talking about his long list of crushes, eyes all crinkled up and warm and his smile cracked wide across his face, shining brighter than any sunrise he’s ever seen. And he’s looking at him, at Will. With love.

“I’m—?” His thoughts are moving fast, and his mouth can barely keep up. This stupid fucking idiot loves him.

And the thing is, the look — It’s not new. Sure, Will recognizes it, but it hasn’t been registering when it’s been directed to him. And it’s been directed to him for a long fucking time. He’s seen it when they’re fooling around at practices, when they’re fighting over pie flavors via impromptu Skype calls with Bitty, when Nurse makes an especially dumb joke just to make Dex laugh, when Derek pulls him out of a homework binge to judge Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s performance in shit like 20/20. Dex is not sure when their tumultuous relationship had developed into full-blown oblivious and obvious heart eyes-ing the shit out of each other territory, but all Will knows is he’s here now and he never wants to leave.

“I mean, I should have known when you brought up Lena and their fucking theory that it’d be wrong—they’re always wrong—but when you said… When you looked at me like that. I thought you were about to reject me.”

And then, he can’t help it — Dex laughs. Just a full-on, belly aching, hysterical ass laugh. He’s red, he knows it, but he can’t stop. He can barely breathe when he finally manages to push out a sentence.

“God, you are so fucking dumb. Why—why would I fucking reject you in front of Lena and C? Why would I _ever_ reject you?”

“Well—”

“You know what, don’t answer that. Because whatever you’re going to say is wrong. And I really want to kiss you right now — and not just to shut you up.”

All the air seems to have left his lungs the moment Derek shoots him the brightest of smiles.

“Then kiss me,” Derek says, as if it’s so easy. And he leans it and it is.

Every single one of their stupid ass fights is worth it at that minute. Derek kisses like he means it, and Will can’t even fathom loving a boy like this, loving a boy who kisses him like he means the world to him and more. And yet he does.

“Why did we have to walk so fucking far to do this?” he asks, after they’d pulled away, out of breath. He doesn’t mind one bit, he just loves getting under Nursey’s skin. “I mean. It’s fucking freezing out here. We could have done this in our room.”

“Scenic fuking route, babe,” is all that Derek responds, to which Will rolls his eyes.

“I fucking hate you,” he mumbles against his lips, before sealing their mouths back together.

“You never could.”

**Author's Note:**

> 1\. ive been wanting to write a nurseydex christmas fic for a yr and instead i procrastinated and started writing this in june instead (but fingers crossed i actually finish it bc whew... they deserve a gay hallmark romance)  
> 2\. the title is from love at first fight by tyler cole (i love him!!)  
> 3\. here's a ~bonus~ aka the nurse kids fight (via text) (bc i love lena!! might write them into more stuff tbh)
> 
> lena: so  
> lena: when am i next invited to samwell  
> derek: never  
> lena: come fucking on!! i want to skate around that manmade lake so bad!!  
> derek: no  
> derek: and its a pond  
> lena: wHO CARES  
> lena: anyways… how are things  
> derek: great no thanks to u  
> lena: ????  
> derek: dex says fuck u  
> derek: [screenshot533.jpg]  
> lena: Rude.  
> lena: WAIT…. why is he listed as ‘dex 😜👿💦💚’???  
> lena: WAIT…. WAIT DEREK DONT TELL ME  
> lena: OHMYGOD  
> lena: NEVER SAY I NEVER DID ANYTHING FOR U!!!  
> derek: shut up  
> derek: and using chowder for it??? really???  
> lena: well if i mentioned the freckles limericks it would be too obvious  
> lena: and besides!!! it worked out so!!  
> derek: i literally ignored him for two weeks bc i thought he knew abt my crush  
> lena: but now he knows!!  
> derek: yeah!! weeks later AFTER he confronted me abt it!!  
> derek: also keep c out of ur schemes, hes my friend  
> lena: lmao  
> lena: i asked chris abt my scheme and he seemed cool w/ it  
> derek: he WHAT


End file.
